Glitch: Millenium Cyberpunk & Cyberpunk offshoots
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In May & June 2024 we read along with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. Curious about more cyberpunk fiction from the turn of the century? Check out these titles that didn't make the Glitch reading list!
In contrast to early cyberpunk sciene fiction, postcyberpunk characters, settings, and assumptions about teh future are slightly more optimistic than their precursors. Postcyberpunk works include a variety of characters but share a common theme: rapid technological change and omnipresent tech-focused infrastructure.
- Glasshouse (2006) by Charles Stross
- Daemon (2006) by Daniel Suarez
- Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (2007) by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
- Little Brother (2008) by Cory Doctorow
- Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline
- Bleeding Edge (2013) by Thomas Pynchon
- The Peripheral (2014) by William Gibson
Two other genres still evolving from cyberpunk are nanopunk and biopunk.
In nanopunk worlds, dystopias are driven by the theoretical use of nanotechnology. One of the earliest works of nanopunk is Tech Heaven (1995) by Linda Nagata, and another favorite is The Diamond Age (2000) by Neal Stephenson.
Biopunk focuses on the use of biotechnology rather than on nanotechnology. Like cyberpunk, themes typically emphasize struggles of individuals or groups against the misuse biotechnologies as means of social control or profiteering by totalitarian governments or megacorporations. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is a notable example.
